PRINCE2 Principles, Themes and Processes

115 flashcards by MentisLibrary

The seven principles, seven themes and seven processes of PRINCE2, the project board roles, tolerances and manage by exception, product-based planning, risk and change procedures, and the 26 management products, with the PRINCE2 7 changes noted, for Foundation and Practitioner candidates.

What does PRINCE2 stand for, and who owns it?

PRojects IN Controlled Environments, version 2. It is a process-based project management method owned by AXELOS (now part of PeopleCert), first published in 1996 and revised in 2009, 2017 and 2023.

How does PRINCE2 define a project?

A temporary organization that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to an agreed business case.

Which five characteristics does PRINCE2 say distinguish a project from business as usual?

Change, temporary, cross-functional, unique, and uncertainty.

What are the four integrated elements of PRINCE2 in the 2017 edition?

Principles, themes, processes and the project environment (tailoring). PRINCE2 7 expands this to five: principles, people, practices, processes and the project context.

Name the seven PRINCE2 principles.

Continued business justification, learn from experience, defined roles and responsibilities, manage by stages, manage by exception, focus on products, and tailor to suit the project.

What does the principle of continued business justification require?

A project must have a justifiable reason to start, and that justification must remain valid and be revalidated throughout the project. If it stops being valid, the project should be stopped.

What does the principle of manage by exception mean in PRINCE2?

Each management level sets tolerances for the level below; the lower level works within them and escalates only when a forecast shows a tolerance will be exceeded. This limits senior management time to decision points.

What does the principle of focus on products mean?

A PRINCE2 project defines and agrees its products and their quality criteria before planning the activities to produce them. Product descriptions drive planning, quality, change and acceptance.

What does manage by stages mean, and what is the minimum number of management stages?

The project is planned, monitored and controlled stage by stage, with the board committing resources one stage at a time. There are at least two management stages: the initiation stage and one or more delivery stages.

What is the difference between embedding and tailoring PRINCE2?

Embedding is an organisation adopting PRINCE2 as its standard method (training, templates, process ownership). Tailoring is adapting the method to a specific project's scale, risk, complexity and environment.

What are the seven PRINCE2 themes (2017 edition)?

Business case, organization, quality, plans, risk, change and progress. Each answers a question: why, who, what, how and when, what if, what is the impact, and where are we now.

What are the seven PRINCE2 processes?

Starting up a project (SU), directing a project (DP), initiating a project (IP), controlling a stage (CS), managing product delivery (MP), managing a stage boundary (SB) and closing a project (CP).

What changed in PRINCE2 7 (2023) compared with the 2017 edition?

Themes became practices (change became issues, organization became organizing), people was added as a central integrated element, sustainability became a seventh performance aspect alongside time, cost, quality, scope, benefits and risk, and new management approaches cover sustainability and digital and data management.

What are the six aspects of project performance that PRINCE2 (2017) manages with tolerances?

Time, cost, quality, scope, benefits and risk. PRINCE2 7 adds sustainability as a seventh.

How do the PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner exams differ?

Foundation is closed book, multiple choice, and tests knowledge of the method (60 questions in 60 minutes). Practitioner is open book (the official manual only), scenario based, and tests applying and tailoring the method; it requires Foundation or an accepted equivalent such as PMP or CAPM.

What is the customer/supplier environment that PRINCE2 assumes?

A customer specifies the desired result and will probably pay for the project, and a supplier provides the resources and skills to deliver it. Both are represented on the project board.

What are the four levels of management in a PRINCE2 project?

Corporate, programme management or the customer (above the project), directing (the project board), managing (the project manager) and delivering (the team managers).

Who sits on a PRINCE2 project board?

The executive (business interests), the senior user or users (those who will use the products), and the senior supplier or suppliers (those who provide resources and expertise).

What is the executive responsible for in PRINCE2?

The executive is a single individual who is ultimately accountable for the project, owns the business case, appoints the PM, secures funding and chairs the project board.

What does the senior user do?

Specifies the needs of those who will use the project's products, represents user interests on the board, ensures the products deliver the required outcomes, and is accountable for realising the benefits after the project.

What does the senior supplier do?

Represents those designing, developing, procuring and implementing the products; provides supplier resources and is accountable for the quality and technical integrity of the products.

What is project assurance, and who can perform it?

The project board's responsibility to independently check that the project is being run properly, split into business, user and supplier assurance. It may be delegated but never to the project manager.

What is a change authority in PRINCE2?

A person or group to whom the project board delegates authority to approve requests for change or off-specifications within limits, often supported by a change budget.

What does the team manager role do, and is it mandatory?

The team manager manages the delivery of products in a work package and reports to the PM through checkpoint reports. The role is optional; the PM can fill it on small projects.

What is project support?

An administrative role that assists the PM with planning, configuration management, record keeping and reporting. It may be a person, a project office, or the PM doing it alone.

What is a stakeholder in PRINCE2, and which management product plans their engagement?

Any individual, group or organisation that can affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by the project. Engagement is planned in the communication management approach, created during initiation.

What is the purpose of the business case theme?

To establish mechanisms to judge whether the project is (and remains) desirable, viable and achievable, as a means to support decision making in its continued investment.

Output vs outcome vs benefit in PRINCE2.

An output is a specialist product the project delivers. An outcome is the result of the change derived from using the outputs. A benefit is the measurable improvement resulting from an outcome, perceived as an advantage by stakeholders.

What is a dis-benefit?

An outcome perceived as negative by one or more stakeholders, an actual consequence of the project rather than a risk.

How does the business case develop across the PRINCE2 processes?

An outline business case is prepared in starting up a project (in the project brief), the detailed business case in initiating a project (in the PID), it is updated at each stage boundary and when exceptions occur, and it is confirmed at project closure.